Category: Water
When the revolution in Rojava began, the groundwater level was very low due mainly to industrial monoculture agriculture organised by the Syrian regime over the last four decades, as well as a decline in rainfall as a result of the global climate crisis.
In 2015, Turkey started to use water as a weapon against Rojava by holding back the water on the rivers which flow from Turkey to Syria through the dams it has been building over the last twenty years.
Then, in October 2019, Turkish state forces invaded some areas of North-East Syria, including the region of Serekaniye, which supplies water to almost half a million people in the region around Hasakah. The Alouk water station in Serekaniye was targeted on the first day of the invasion. Since then it has been fixed and then put out of service again repeatedly.
Since the start of the invasion of Serekaniye, Turkish military forces and their allies have continued to attack water infrastructure, burned newly planted orchards and dammed the rivers providing most of the fresh water and electricity to Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently without safe reliable drinking water, a situation only exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the articles below, you can find more information about issues surrounding water and the struggles for water autonomy in North and East Syria. There are also articles here with information on issues around water in southeastern Turkey, such as Turkish megaproject the Ilisu Dam, whose waters have now submerged the ancient city of Hasankeyf, drowning thousands of years of largely unexcavated human history and displacing an estimated 100,000 people, while giving Turkey unprecedented control over waters of the wider region.
Women shoulder important tasks at Fırat Water Treatment Plant
Seven women work in the Fırat Water Treatment Plant opened in Raqqa. Stating that they shoulder many tasks at the plant, they drew attention to the economic problems faced by them.
A call to the Climate Movement from the Make Rojava Green Again Campaign
We call up on you to defend Rojava! We call you to raise your voices and actions, to organize and to connect with each other. We call up on you to support us in solidarity and spread the word. Let’s build an international front fighting for climate-justice! Rojava can be a role model for humanity to save mother earth. Let’s stand up for it together!
The Rojava Revolution – A Decade On (Part I)
History of the Revolution: Much Achieved, Still Much to be Done.
Humanitarian disaster looms in Hesekê and Deir ez-Zor
There is an extreme water shortage in northern and eastern Syria. The water level in the Hesekê dam has dropped massively. A humanitarian catastrophe is looming in the greater regions of Hesekê and Deir ez-Zor.
They keep working in agriculture despite great challenges
Women fill many roles in agriculture because they are the only ones who can work in hard and challenging working conditions, which include working in the heat, and even on frosty days.
Draught, Euphrates Water Reduction Raise Farmers’ Concern In Syria’s Raqqa
Farmers in the northern countryside of Raqqa complain about the lack of water in the main channels and the drought of artesian wells which exposed agricultural crops to damage.
Despite Increasing Adversity, North and East Syria Continues to Provide Services and Reconstruction
In March 2019 when North and East Syria was fully liberated, the focus on the fight against ISIS switched from a military campaign to economic and humanitarian recovery for the affected people. In order to ensure a lasting defeat of ISIS, the poor socio-economic conditions that the organization took advantage of in the first place have to be sufficiently addressed.
Reduction of Euphrates water decreases electricity production in North-East Syria
As Turkey is reducing the levels of water in the Euphrates River, the production of electricity supplied to the cities in North and East Syria has dramatically decreased.
Harvest season for barley, wheat starts in Deir ez-Zor
Women of Deir ez-Zor, who have started reaping barley and wheat crops, complain that they could not get the desired results from the crops due to the insufficient rainfall and the low water level of the Euphrates River.
Turkish Dams Could Cause Environmental Disaster In Aleppo Region
Only one kilometer from Shahba Dam in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo governorate, , the 50-year-old farmer Mahmoud Osso is staring at his land, which he has not cultivated this year due to drought and lack of rainfall.
Turkey’s Reduction Of Khabur River Water Threatens Fishery In Syria’s Northeast
Fishermen expressed on Sunday their concern over the increasing level of the pollution in the water of al-Basel Dam, south of Hasakah, northeast Syria, which led to the death of many fish.
